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On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

In order to be able to track tomato seeds it is necessary that we know the weight of the tomato, the grower, the variety grown and the year grown for the seeds used. The GPC tomato weight site is the best and maybe the only data now available. Very few of the seeds listed there for this year have the information needed to track them. It may be too late to do anything. The data would have to be corrected back to at least 2012. Maybe no one cares? Pretty soon it won't matter anyway as it will be impossible to correct even someone wants to.

10/5/2014 5:28:40 PM

valparaiso, in

Most of the information can be found using the search feature on this site. Sadly most people do not use it. I agree it may be too late already.

10/5/2014 9:27:35 PM

East Carbon, Utah

Most pumpkin growers are very particular about knowing the genealogy of the two lines they use for making crosses, and the majority of the really big pumpkins are a result of crosses, not open pollination or self pollination.

It is generally understood among pumpkin growers that keeping genetic diversity high and dynamic is one of the key factors in keeping the sport exciting and progressive.

Though the 28-year-old record has finally fallen - BIG-time - thanks to Dan's amazingly successful strategy and efforts, until tomato growers follow the lead of the pumpkin growers by making carefully selected crosses among distantly related varieties, the improvements in the sport of growing giant tomatoes will continue to lag behind pumpkin growing, in my opinion.

Of course selecting which crosses to make requires all the information Marv indicates for every specimen. Several of those listed on the BP weigh-off results page are NOT Big Zac, Delicious or MegaMarv and deserve some consideration for attempting to grow for size. But variety names are rarely listed, so who would know?

No, I'm not suggesting everybody make crosses every time. I tried more than 70 crosses this year and I'm embarrassed to even say what a low success rate I had... Just a few new crosses each year, with seeds being traded among serious growers, is probably enough. (REALLY looking forward to trying ZacZilla!!!)

A confounding problem with tomatoes is that you pretty much have to dedicate a given plant to either trying to grow a huge tomato, or using it for breeding purposes. Megablooms do not lend themselves well to cross-pollination efforts.

10/6/2014 2:15:46 AM

Muddy Waters

Well as a pumpkin & mater grower I have to say.How can you tell when the flower is first open?With the kins its real obvious.The maters not so much.I care, but the time factor is a big thing.So I apologize for my laziness.I have always loved big maters,and want to grow them.But heres the big BUTT! just being honest here.I have a kin doing 44 lbs a day 3 or 4 of them screaming Bubba Feed me!!Its hard to bag a little mater flower at this time.No disrespect intended.Pumpkin fever is tough to overcome.I will try harder next season.Please remind me next July.

10/6/2014 5:56:49 AM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

Bubba, if you are not trying to make crosses this does not apply directly to you. What we are saying is that if you grow a certain variety of tomato, and you and everyone else does, just say what it is. If you grew 4.57 MacCoy (Big Zac) 2013 all that is needed is to let everyone know it was Big Zac ie 9.7 Bubba (BigZac)2014. Not hard at all. But absolutely needed by growers of the future.

10/6/2014 8:26:53 AM

Bloomington Indiana

HI Marv, Gave all that info at weigh-off on paper. still did not make it on the gpc list! May be data entry more than just the growers.
Gary

10/6/2014 9:16:43 AM

Western PA

Unfortunately, out of the twenty plants that i started, i had only one that i some how forgot to put the sign up beside that plant. And wouldn't you know it, it grew a big one.
That is why the 5.3 does not have any info beside it. Very sorry. Other than that one, i knew exaclty what i had.

Marv, i grew two decent ones with Brutus Magnum seeds that you gave me. Do you know the weight of the tomato from which the seeds came from ?? You gave me a business card that had a pic of three tomatoes on it, is that the weight from the Brutus Magnum ?

10/6/2014 9:35:09 AM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

Zappa. That is the one. But since Brutus Magnum is an heirloom it really should make little difference. The seeds have been grown for many years and are stable. But, several years ago two of the growers noted that some of their Brutus Magnum tomatoes were yellow! Their seeds are now producing more and more yellow Brutus Magnum. Not totally sure what happened there. The really important thing is that the variety name not be lost. The way it is now in a few years people will not know if they are growing Big Zac, ZacZilla, Delicious or what. And the name of any new variety someone grows big with will be lost almost immediately.

10/6/2014 12:38:48 PM

East Carbon, Utah

gmay - same here! Over the years I've always submitted full information with my entry forms, but I don't think even once has all vital data been entered, and I can't even predict what will be left off.

So maybe many if not most tomato growers ARE including full documentation, variety name and genealogy with their submission forms but this is simply not being transferred to the database?

10/6/2014 9:14:56 PM

Corbin, KY

Dates as well as variety comes in very handy when a grower could have multiable tomatoes of the same weight. I think Fabrice had two tomatoes of the same weight.

10/7/2014 11:25:03 AM

Kaukauna, Wisconsin

Marv I am glad for the post. It seems that some of the best weigh off sites do not care to gather the proper data and enter it on BP. As a grower competing in the Master Gardner it is very frustrating.

10/8/2014 9:01:06 PM